
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 18, 1993                   TAG: 9305180018
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

NEW BILL TARGETS TOBACCO SALES

The tobacco industry would be put under Food and Drug Administration regulation and sales of tobacco products to people under 18 would be banned under a bill introduced Monday in the House.

The legislation, said Rep. Mike Synar, D-Okla., would "bring this nation's leading cause of death and disability in line with the way other legal products are regulated."

The bill, cosponsored by Rep. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and endorsed by a coalition of health organizations, would also prohibit free samples and discount coupons of tobacco products, demand additional health warnings on cigarette packages, ensure that all chemical additives used in cigarettes are safe and prohibit tobacco companies from high-profile sponsorship of sports, cultural or other public events.

It also would require the tobacco industry to pay the cost of regulation.

Synar said the bill, aimed at reducing the nation's costs in lost productivity and health care, "tucks in very nicely with the national health care plan" the Clinton administration will soon introduce.

A spokeswoman for the Tobacco Institute said the Synar-Durbin bill was unnecessary because 49 states already have laws barring sales to minors under 18 and because cigarette manufacturers have long disclosed the ingredients of their products to the Health and Human Services Department, the parent agency of the FDA.

"The premise is that there is no regulation of tobacco. That is flatly and demonstrably false. There is an alphabet soup of agencies that regulate tobacco," said Brennan Dawson.

But Durbin insisted that "the tobacco industry has been shrouded in secrecy. We don't know what's in the product." Durbin said the industry has gained exemption from much regulation on grounds it is neither food nor a drug.

The Coalition on Smoking Or Health released results of a Gallup Poll that it said showed 68 percent of Americans believe the FDA should regulate tobacco products as drugs are regulated.

The group said two-thirds favor restrictions on advertising that encourages people to smoke and more than half believe all tobacco advertising should be banned.

by CNB